Rich is a Research Project Coordinator for the Trimble Lab as well as the Grinstein lab.
He attended the University of Toronto where he got his Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology. He then went on to the Botany Department at University of Toronto where he worked with several plant viruses, and the world’s smallest genome, the self-cleaving satellite RNA of Rice Yellow Mottle Sobemovirus, consisting of 220 nucleotides and coding for a ribozyme and a single protein.
In the Trimble lab Rich has been studying scavenger receptors since 2005. He has studied how CD36, a fatty acid transporter, is internalized by cells, followed by a single-particle tracking study of CD36, and the signaling pathway following ligation to oxidized LDL. In 2013 he published a paper on the X-ray crystallographic structure of LIMP-2, in the same family as CD36.
In the spring and summer Rich can be found racing sailboats every week, hiking along the Bruce Trail, or training for a half-marathon. In the fall he will be fishing for rainbow trout or salmon on Lake Ontario tributaries. In winter you can find him carving up the slopes.